Big Think Competition

Enter our Big Think Competition!

Every year, we invite students across the UK to tackle one of our academics’ ‘big’ questions. These are designed to challenge you beyond the school curriculum and get you thinking ‘big’ about your subject and what it might be like to study it at university. Simply record a video of 5 minutes or less presenting your arguments, research, evidence and opinions.

Prizes

  • £100 1st Prize
  • £50 2nd Prize
  • £35 Subject Awards

To enter you must:

  • live in the UK
  • attend a state school
  • be in Year 11, Year 12, or Year 13 (S4-S6 in Scotland)

Winners will also be invited to visit Oxford on 18 June 2026, where they will have the opportunity to discuss their entries with subject tutors, take a tour of the College with current students, and enjoy lunch in our dining hall.

How to enter:

  • Send us a video of no more than 5 minutes in length.
  • There’s no need for any fancy equipment, you can film on your phone if you like – we will be judging entries based on your engagement with the question.
  • Your video doesn’t have to include your face - feel free to get creative! You could narrate a PowerPoint, record yourself drawing or even apply your TikTok-making skills…
  • Submit your video through the Entry Form via TransferNow.

AI Usage & Guidance

The Big Think Competition encourages students to tackle thought-provoking problems and to demonstrate their understanding in innovative and original ways. This should be driven by personal curiosity, creativity and judgement. Used judiciously, Generative AI may be able to help with this, but over-reliance will lead to an unoriginal submission unlikely to stand out. With this in mind, we would prefer if use of GenAI was kept to a minimum, or not used at all in submissions to the competition.

 

Biochemistry

Measles was eradicated from the UK but has made a comeback to low vaccination rates. How can we promote safe and effective vaccines, especially given the persuasive misinformation on social media?

Question set by Dr Tara Hurst, tutor in Biochemistry at St Edmund Hall. Tara’s research interests are broadly in emerging viruses, high consequence pathogens, antiviral immunity, the innate immune response and the role(s) of viruses in cancers.

Chemistry

How can chemistry make hydrogen a genuinely green fuel?

Question set by Professor Anna Regoutz, tutor in Chemistry at St Edmund Hall. Anna leads an interdisciplinary and diverse experimental research group in the University’s Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory.

Computer Science

Will quantum computers make all our data public?

Question set by Dr Joe Pitt-Francis, tutor in Computer Science at St Edmund Hall. Joe is interested in models of the heart, cancer, and blood flow. He is active in software development and works with Chaste, a large C++ software library for computational models of biology.

Earth Sciences

How might environments on the early Earth have contributed to the origin of life?

Question set by Dr Luke Parry, tutor in Earth Sciences at St Edmund Hall. Luke is also an associate Professor of Paleobiology at the University of Oxford’s Earth Sciences department, with his research aiming to understand the origin and early evolution of animal life.

Economics and Management

Can Economics Turn Climate Risks into Opportunities for Peace?

Question set by Dr Dahab Aglan, tutor in Economics at St Edmund Hall. Her research interests are in development economics. In particular, she works on conflict, migration, and social cohesion.

Engineering

Would it be possible to build a modern city without cars?

Question set by Prof. Paul Goulart, tutor in Engineering at St Edmund Hall. After initially studying Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, Paul went on to specialise in Control Engineering.

English

Can we learn more from engaging with the arts and literature of the past than with that of the present?

Question set by Dr Tom MacFaul, tutor in English at St Edmund Hall. Tom teaches widely in English literature, and has particular research interests in Renaissance poetry and drama, and in Romantic-period poetry.

Geography

Can humans live with other species? (Beyond the ones we directly benefit from)

Question set by Dr David Moreno-Mateos, tutor in Geography at St Edmund Hall. David’s research interests lies in studying patterns and mechanisms that shape the recovery of ecosystems after anthropogenic disturbance over long periods of time (centuries to millennia).

History

Is revolution ever worth the cost?

Question set by Dr Pratinav Anil, tutor in History at St Edmund Hall. Pratinav is a historian of postcolonial India. He teaches European and world history with a focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Law

To what extent should countries opt in to international legal frameworks?

Question set by Professor Brooke Marshall, tutor in Law at St Edmund Hall. Her work explores how different legal systems respond to challenges confronting people when they work, transact, have disputes, migrate, or fall in love across borders.

Materials Science

Is it better for materials to be more recyclable or more durable?

Question set by Qianyi (Q) Sun, tutor in Materials Science at St Edmund Hall. A metallurgist-turned-superconductivity researcher, Q is an avid experimentalist and electron microscopist. His research centres around the applications of superconductors towards nuclear fusion for cleaner, greener energy.

Maths

What is the biggest contribution mathematics has made to the modern world?

Question set by Dr Tom Crawford, tutor in Maths at St Edmund Hall but you might have heard of him as Tom Rocks Maths on YouTube. He uses his specialism in Applied Mathematics to produce content on his channel, as well as to work with the BBC and Numberphile.

Medical Sciences

What does the brain need in order to learn something new?

Question set by Prof. David Dupret, tutor in Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at St Edmund Hall. David teaches Neurosciences to our students. His research group is looking at how the different regions of the brain help us use memories to guide our behaviour.

Modern Languages

Can learning a new language change your worldview?

Question set by Dr Alex Lloyd, tutor in German Studies at St Edmund Hall. Alex teaches translation, literature, and film, specialising in the post-1945 period. Her research focuses on cultural memories of childhood, war, and dictatorship.

 

Physics

Who should own or control space resources like asteroids or the Moon?

Question set by Prof. Carly Howett, tutor in Physics at St Edmund Hall. She is also a planetary physicist who specialises in space studies. Carly helps develop new instruments that allow us to explore the solar system and is involved in several projects at both ESA and NASA.

Politics

Why don’t elections always produce democratic outcomes?

Question set by Dr Musab Younis, tutor in Politics at St Edmund Hall. Musab works on international political thought, with a focus on race, empire and anticolonialism especially during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His approach connects the history of thinking about empire to topics in contemporary political theory.

Psychology

Are humans rational?

Question set by Dr Iana Alexeeva, tutor in Experimental Psychology at St Edmund Hall. Iana teaches on a variety of topics from psychological disorders to information processing. In particular, she is interested in how cognitive and emotional processes play a role in coping with illness and treatment.

 

 

Picked your question? Get thinking and submit your entry by noon on Monday 27 April!

Submit your entry here

Need some inspiration about how to approach a Big Think question?

View 2025’s Winning Entries

 

Archived Entries:

You can find the winning entries and commendations for previous years of the Big Think Competition by following the links below: